RAFAEL NADAL - THE PHENOMENON

I love sports and i love watching all the champions. How they compete, how they behave and how they seperate their levels with the other athletes.

There's a teenager from Mallorca that interest me in 2003. And he kept amuzing me until this day.

His name is RAFAEL NADAL PARERA, he's now the No.1 tennis player of the world.

Before i write about his personality and characters, i want to write his biography first.

BIOGRAPHY :

• Nickname       : Rafa, El Toro (The Bull), The King of Clay.
• Date of birth    : June 3, 1986
• Place of birth  : Manacor, Majorca
• Height              : 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
• Weight             : 85.0 kg (187 lb; 13.39 st)
• Turned pro      : 2001
• Plays                : Left-handed; two-handed backhand
• Career prize money     US$ 20,814,797 ( until 2008)

ACHIEVEMENT :
Thiese are only the Grand Slam achievements, not including the ATP Tour and Master series.

• In 2005 - He won the French Open, known as Rolland Garros.
• In 2006 - He won the French Open again and a runner up in Wimbledon. Roger Federer won the Wimbledon.
• In 2007 - He won the French Open and yet still beaten in the final of Wimbledon by Roger Federer.
• In 2008 - Rafa became the No.1 Tennis Player in the world by winning the French Open, Wimbledon, and won the gold medal in Olympic. That's really an unbelievable achievement for a 21 years old (last year). Rafael Nadal is the only tennis player that won 2 Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.
• In 2009  - He started the year by winning the first Grand Slam of the year, The Australian Open

Why all the tennis fans love him so much?

TALENT
If you have seen Rafa plays, then you knew that he had a extraordinary spinning swings. That's one of his arsenal in the game.
The spinning ball is hard to returned, but the extra powerful spinning shot from The Matador is almost impossible for the mediocre tennis player to return. And even the top ten players in the world said that they never see returned ball so fast. The ball is fast then after touching the ground, it spins so high and so fast towards the opponent. The opponent had to move far back to be able returning Rafa's Extreme Spinning Forehand.
His other extraordinary arsenal on court is his speed. He's amazingly fast and athletic. You just can't understand how he could make an amazing net volley from an unbelievable distance in a second. He's very famous for that. Beside those two extraordinary skills, Rafa also equipped himself with an excellent serve, volley, spinning backhand (also lethal) and great endurance.

DETERMINATION
Rafa always chase the "impossible ball".
Many great tennis players like Michael Chang, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, always chasing the impossible ball too, but they stop when they realized it's impossible to reach.
But no ball is too far for Rafa, and no such thing as an "impossible ball" for him. He consistently ran as fast as possible and reach for every ball no matter what the result is.
And the result are amazing. His athletic body enabled him to transform the defensive play into an offensive shot in a split second. That's why all his opponents had to worked extra hard to score a point against Rafa.

APPEARANCE
Big bulky left hand, athletic body, handsome and charismatic face attracts fans all around the world, especially the ladies. He's known for having a sexy a*s too.
The sleeveless shirt, bandana, pirate style hair is another trademark of his appearance on the court.
Of court, he's not a too flashy guy, he's a bit shy and casual.

PERSONALITY
When you watched him play, you would see a very focus young man, tight face, no smile, no significant change of body language, and no curse from his mouth. He's like in another dimension when he's on court. The only word that sometimes came from his mouth is "VAMOS" when he made an unbelievable shot.
But actually Rafael Nadal is a very shy, full of smile, polite and sophisticated young man if you met him outside the court. All the other players like him (off court especially) and even though he's the number one player in the world, Rafa is very humble.

I read his blog, his comment, watched his press conferences. And what i saw is an ordinary young man with an extraordinary talent.
When he's on tour, he plays soccer game on Playstation console with another famous player like David Nalbandian, Juan del Potro, Fernando Lopez and many other young players. He's friendly and humble to the press, a bit shy though.

Rafa also has a big heart at a young age. He made '''Fundación Rafa Nadal''', which is a private non-profit-making organization, with headquarters in Manacor and helping those who need it the most, such as handicapped, immigrant and socially excluded people.

As a sports fanatics, i always observe champions, like Tiger Woods, Michael Schumaker, Michael Phelps, David Becham and many other champions. Then i decided to separate Rafa from them,
Rafael Nadal Parera is not only a champion, he's a PHENOMENON